On the bench: Viking / Rus age replica blades work in progress-and the question of the Kopis edge line

Currently I am working on my first genuine replicas / museum artefact interpretations, and I am faced with some difficulties. First and foremostly, I am inspired very much by the Novgorod Viking age finds. The culprit is, there are some of the blades found in Novgorod showing a somewhat "recurve" blade line, as the Kopis style blade below. That blade you might know from another post. As you can see in the pattern, the blade is forged that way.
(picture courtesy of http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/NovgorodMetalp.html)

As you can see, the topmost find, not identical to my interpretation, which follows the lines of this one:

 picture by http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/NovgorodMetalp.html

 is also presumeably forged that way, because the fuller (top photo) follows the edge line.

But there is a problem Mielenko pointed out: If you look at old kitchen knives which have seen a lot of hard use you will often notice a recurve edge line, too. This is often due to a mistake in stropping. If a knife is sharpened a lot just where the edge became dull the blade will develop this edge line, because the edge always gets dulled near the handle first. If you look closely at the second knife in the topmost picture you might get the impression too. The knife has seen a lot of use apparently, for the edge line is drawn in quite a bit and also shows a recurve form. So I must admit I have gone to liberties with the design. I simply cannot tell whether the longer blade actually is authentic.

I have thusly decided, since I am forced to interpret anyway, to dismiss the authenticity a tiny bit and do something of an interpretation again.

The little blade, however (ancient crucible steel and 1.2842) follows the lines of a great many finds and thusly poses no problems whatsoever. I like how the pattern shows, even if it did not weld that good. That´s the problem when you work with salvaged steels - you´ll never know what you get!

But the blade is coming along nicely, with a nice and crispy hardness and great flexibility, so watch this place for news!;-)

New project I want to start

On http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/novgorodmetalp.html I finally found the knife Joel once upon a time referred to when he first saw Lúgra - Móros, the moon mare. Here he made some similar ones modelled after some medieval knives found with the St. Thomas Guild. The knives in the picture above, however, are Rus knives from Novgorod, from a late Viking area. I simply love the Kopis lines of the topmost design. I do not know yet whether I will do an exact reconstruction or an interpretation of the knife.


Also on schedule is the topmost knife as a seax replacement. I love the aspect that this design transports a lot of cultural interconnections. For the Kopis form is safe to say to have been introduced by oriental employers of Viking mercenaries or tradesmen from the middle east.



This is another thing I want to have...;-), a Rus folding knife. So much for the "Barbarian" Vikings... even more so however, does this find:



..give testament to the theory that Vikings, and Rus, the Viking founders of Kiew, actually were rather civilized gentlemen, for it is a device carried by male and female "Vikings" carried for a rather sophisticated body care. Second to left is an ear-cleansing spoon, and, owning and using one, I can say it beats a q-tip by far.

I have work to do!!!! Copyright of the pics is with  http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/novgorodmetalp.html. If you want to share, please quote correctly. Thank you!